A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



The hill plantations are principally of larch 4 ft. apart, mixed with hardwoods (sycamore and 

 ash being preferred) on fresh land. When the plants have fully established themselves, underlings, 

 &c., and deformed trees are taken out. On the larch reaching its maturity the covers are cleared 

 of them, while the best of the hardwoods are left standing in the best parts, and the worst parts are 

 replanted with spruce for game cover, or with beech for the next crop. In many cases, where the 

 plantations have been cleared, a crop of ash has come up of itself and has been left for poles, and 

 will eventually be cut for underwood, leaving the best ash for timber. 



In the Vale a portion of the underwood is cut each year, and the oaks and other trees (except 

 ornamental specimens) that have attained maturity are felled and sold, unless required for estate 

 repairs, a water-power saw-mill being used for the purpose of conversion in the latter case. 



The underwood scarcely now pays for cutting, but it supplies the neighbourhood with fire- 

 lighting wood, and with useful poles and stakes for many purposes. 



Of the 1 20 acres planted in the last five years about 1 00 acres are chiefly of larch formed on 

 old arable land, and 20 acres are mainly of sycamore, because experience here has shown that when 

 land under larch is replanted with larch the young crop seems very liable to the attacks of the 

 canker fungus. 



Pit-planting in circular holes, about 18 in. in diameter and 8 in. deep, or 16 in. in diameter 

 and 9 in. deep, according to the nature of the soil, is the usual method adopted on the hilly ground. 

 The holing is done by piece-work, and the planting by day-work, the total cost being about 2s. 6d. 

 per 100 trees to get the work done well. 



For planting oak, ash, alder, Italian poplar, elm, &c. in open places in the woods in the 

 Vale, plants about 6 ft. high are used, and each individual tree has to be protected from rabbits. 

 They seem to do best when planted in groups, each kind by itself. 



The woodlands on the Right Hon. Lord Sherborne's Sherborne (Northleach) and Standish 

 estates are of large extent, as the enclosed plantations alone have an area of about 1,000 acres, 

 while the many trees planted throughout the park and the grass-lands in the valleys give the whole 

 a very well wooded appearance. The older plantations, formed about 80 to 100 years ago, are 

 chiefly belts of trees with occasional clumps on the higher parts to shelter homesteads and stock. 

 Here, about 440 ft. above the sea-level, the timber is mostly beech, which grows into fine trees, 

 interspersed with a few oak, ash, elm, hornbeam, maple, and poplar in a fairly thriving condition. 

 Larch, spruce, and Scots pine, originally planted along with the hardwoods as ' nurses ' but left to 

 grow into timber, have now in many cases become over-mature and unsound owing to their not 

 having been removed in due time. At Lodge Park, about two miles distant at an altitude of about 

 540 ft., larch flourishes on thinner brashy soil, the beech thrives and ash grows well, while sycamore 

 has been planted with much success on some of the thinnest soils, often thriving when other and 

 less hardy trees set out along with it find difficulty in maintaining their existence. 



There are some 80 acres or more of ash coppice, cut with a rotation of from twelve to 

 twenty years (but most frequently seventeen to twenty), and these form the most profitable portions 

 of the woodlands, generally giving a return of over 20*. per acre per annum. The ash are now 

 planted very thick, so as to run up into clean poles, but assistance in this matter is also given for a 

 few years by nipping off superfluous side-branches and removing double leaders formed as the result 

 of frost. 



On some parts of the estate, especially with a northern or western exposure, the larch thrives 

 luxuriously, and is free from the canker disease ; but many of the young plantations formed during 

 the last thirty years have been attacked by this fungus and rendered unfit for timber, so that they 

 will have to be cleared and used for fencing purposes. In consequence of this disease larch is no 

 longer the chief tree numerically in the plantations formed during the last six years (about 40 acres) 

 a preference having been given to mixtures of hardwoods (oak, ash, maple, and elm) with Scots 

 pine, larch, spruce, and a few Douglas fir. The hardwoods are, without exception, planted in pits, 

 as also the larger of the coniferous plants, while the smaller ones are notched into the soil with an 

 L-shaped notch. Thinnings in the various woods are said to have been neglected up to about ten 

 years ago, but since then work has been more regularly taken in hand to prevent the plantations 

 becoming overcrowded and unhealthy. 



The Sedbury Park Estate, near Chepstow, the property of Sir William H. Marling, bart., and 

 Colonel P. S. Marling, V.C., extends altogether to 1,250 acres (of which 1,083 acres are old woods, 

 and 167 acres are plantations) in the parishes of Tidenham, Woolaston, and Hewelsfield. They are 

 situated on an exposed position between the Rivers Severn and Wye, on land varying from 50 to 

 750 ft. above sea-level. 



In the i, 083 acres of old copsewoods the age of the standard timber trees cannot be ascertained, 

 and the underwoods vary greatly in quality ; they comprise a mixture of oak, hazel, birch, alder, 

 blackwithy, lime, maple, whitebeam and chestnut, growing at random. These woods do not appear 

 to have been planted, but seem to be remnants of the ancient woodlands formerly existing in this 

 part of the county. The timber in the copsewoods comprises oak, ash, birch, elm and beech ; but 



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